Do I love me some hockey--maybe...

I will fully cop to being a puckhead come lately.

I never got into hockey. It's still a hard sport to watch on TV (although I find it much better in HD, love that technology). I always appreciated the skills of these guys to even be able to stand up on ice in all that gear let alone crush the boards (that's a thing, right?). Still, I'm not great on the rules (icing anyone? What the hell is icing?) and I had a lot of time invested in, you know, baseball, football, basketball, full contact nude female karate. The big games.

This year, with the Blackhawks about the only team in my area worth a damn I've hit a game live and watched a few. It still didn't really catch my attention much as I tried. I listen to a fair amount of sports radio and before the Olympics all I heard about was what a waste it was to take two weeks off and pull the players out of the NHL season and someone could get hurt and blah, blah, blah... I kinda agreed.

Then I watched yesterday's USA v. Canada overtime skate to the death. I don't know how much impact that's going to have on hockey as a sport in the U.S. in general, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm a little hooked. I want to find out more about these guys (millionaires all) who fought so damn hard for a little circle of Gold. That goal in the final minute to tie the match up may have been one of the most exciting things I've ever seen in sports... So, NHL peeps, maybe this Olympics wasn't such a bad idea. There may be one more fan, at least, as a result, and I have to think there's probably a few more of us bandwagon jumpers out there.

Congrats to Team Canada, and to Team USA. Fantastic job.

Peace.